Psyren Call: drabble collection
by Cairnsy
Summary: A collection of short ficlets.   Most will feature Haruhiko and Lan, but there will be a healthy dose of Ian, Kagetora, and Matsuri thrown in as well.  Mixture of gen, shounen-ai, and het.  07: Futility - Haruhiko gen.
1. Emotion:  Haruhiko and Lan centric

**General Introduction: **This is where I'm going to collect my random Psyren ficlets for various challenges on Live Journal/requests. Some of the challenges have quite specific word counts, which I'm not sticking to quite so rigorously when I post them here. As a result, there may be some differences in the ficlets that appear on and those on the challenge community.

Most of the ficlets will be focussed on Haruhiko and Lan, with some Kagetora, Matsuri, and Ian thrown in. There will be a mixture of gen, shounen-ai, and het.

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**Emotion**_  
(Challenge: for the writing_game prompt 'emotion', 200 word limit. Haruhiko and Lan centric)_

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Haruhiko rages in streaks of lightning, so hot and bright that the world lights up in a torrent of angry curses and sharp, shocking insults. Some days it feels as though he has so much anger that it burns, because nothing is right and he's so fucking useless and he's going to hell and dragging Lan down with him-

On those days, he hurts people he shouldn't. Kids with super powers just trying to do the right thing, good guys instead of the bad ones he's somehow ended up working for. Lan. Himself. The whole fucking world.

Lan locks his emotions up in a box where they are safe, and lives vicariously through Haruhiko's instead because it's easier; less painful and damaging. It's unfair, he knows, because it's Haruhiko then who hurts and gets that little bit damaged, and it's his friend (his _best_ friend) who makes the decisions they need to make, allowing Lan to step back and remain somehow untainted by it all. It's his sister's life that they fight for, steal for, threaten to fall apart for, but it's Haruhiko who is willing to sacrifice his last few shreds of decency while Lan hopes uselessly for a better way.


	2. Dark: Lan x Haruhiko

**Dark**_  
(Challenge: for the writing_game prompt 'dark', 200 word limit. Lan/Haruhiko)_

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"Ow! Fuck, Lan! What did I tell you about paying the electricity bill?"

"You know, I can't quite remember. Maybe you could enlighten me."

"_Enlighten_ you? You've got to be shitting me."

"Sorry. Just trying to lighten the mood."

"…"

"You're plotting ways to kill me, aren't you?"

"I'm particularly fond of number 12. Fuck, that _hurt_."

"… are you ok?"

"No, I am not ok. I couldn't be further from ok if ok jumped on a boat and sailed all the way to fucking England. I smashed me knee against something when the stupid lights went out."

"Ouch. Sorry. Want me to kiss it better?"

"Oh, you think that is going to make everything all fine and dandy, do you? A kiss?"

"Sit down and give me your ankle."

"Pervert."

"Foot, Haruhiko."

"…"

"Better?"

"… I also hit my mouth on something, as well."


	3. Gazelle: Matsuri x Kagetora

**Gazelle**_  
(Challenge: for the writing_game prompt 'gazelle', 200 word limit. Matsuri/Kagetora)_

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_When they first met, Kagetora was stupid enough to think Matsuri was a gazelle in human form. It was all the sleek lines and long legs that did him in, and it was a mistake, he learned, that most men made. There was so much beauty there – so much sexually charged elegance – that it was easy to see the lines and the legs and not the deliberate temptation that lurked beneath them.

Unlike most other men, Kagetora was a quick learner. On their second meeting, it took only one dry smile for him to catch on that the closest thing to a gazelle in the room was the one reflected (hungrily, predatorily) in Matsuri's eyes.


	4. Learners Permit: Kagetora, Haruhiko, Lan

**Learner's Permit**_  
(Challenge: for the writing_game prompt 'learner's permit', 200 word limit. Kagetora, Haruhiko, Lan centric)_

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The kids are all right, Kagetora decides, but they're not ready to go out into the world on their own, not quite yet. Lan and Haruhiko dangerously lack direction, and while Kagetora thinks – _knows_ – that they want to do good after all the nasty crap they've been caught up in, it's too easy to see them falling into another crazy scheme, or worse, through the cracks and into a world of dead teenagers and screwed-up statistics.

Sure, it would be a hell of a lot simpler to leave them to it. They're both 18 and know how the world works, even if they don't know how to get it to work for them. Let them make their own decisions and see if maybe they can swim a little bit on their own once they're thrown in the deep end, all alone.

Or, he could keep them close. Bring them in on some of his assignments. Show them the good that exists in the world, themselves. That sort of thing. Because the kids are all right, even though Kagetora thinks – _knows_ - they've been through enough to justify being twisted and bitter and mean instead. Maybe, if someone doesn't step in now, one day they will be.

And that would be a loss. Better to teach Lan and Haruhiko how to drive down the right road now that they've finally found it than to merely point them in the right direction and hope for the best.

Kagetora, it turns out, is a very good teacher.


	5. Nature: Haruhiko and Lan centric

**Nature**_  
Challenge: for the writing_game prompt 'nature', 200 word limit. Haruhiko and Lan centric._

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_"You know, I don't think I can remember what a real tree looks like," Haruhiko says casually to Lan one day over breakfast. It has been only four years since the world ended, reducing everything above ground to dust and demons, frayed cement and empty shells. "I mean, I could draw one if I had to. It's a fucking tree, not a Picasso. But it's the little things, right? Like, leaves. I know they're leaf shaped, but can you remember what they actually really looked like, how they felt?"

Lan doesn't know what to say. He has always been happy with empty, structured boxes, believing at his core that it's how you use those boxes (what you put _in_ them) that matters. But Haruhiko's powers are elemental, with Haruhiko the conductor through which they vibrate and explode.

"They've managed to grow some saplings artificially in the lab," Lan eventually replies. It's not the same – the saplings aren't the same, _can't_ be the same in this contaminated new world – but Haruhiko just grins around a mouthful of gruel before changing the topic to the most recent attack on the base.

And trees go back to not existing. It's much easier, that way.


	6. Tub, Hint, Terrible: Lan x Haruhiko

**Down the Drain**_  
Challenge: for the multiple writing_game prompts 'tub, hint, terrible', 200 word limit. Lan/Haruhiko._

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_The new apartment was almost an hour away from the hospital, but it was as good as they were going to get with only a handful of yen for a deposit. And yeah, the door kind of stuck in the frame until it kind of wouldn't close at all, and the windows were crisscrossed with enough bars that opening them seemed like a rather fanciful illusion.

It was, Haruhiko had to admit, the hole to end all holes.

"Fuck," Lan swore quietly, dark eyes scanning across the tiny, dirty, creepy room. "Listen, Haruhiko. You don't have to stay-"

"Can you believe it?" Haruhiko interrupted, bouncing back into the main room from what almost passed for a bathroom. "There's a tub! A fucking tub! When did we last live somewhere with a tub?" He paused, mid bounce. "I don't think we've ever had an apartment with a tub. This? Is awesome."

"Yeah. Awesome." A faint smile ghosted across Lan's lips. "Who would've thought, huh?"

"Want to help me break it in?" Haruhiko smirked. "You know, save on the water bill and everything."

Lan's smile deepened, even though the 'everything' on offer was just Haruhiko and not the hundreds of other things Lan deserved.

"We just … uh … might have to clean it, first."


	7. Futility: Haruhiko

**Futility**_  
(Challenge: for the writing_game prompts 'futility, pale'), 200 word limit. Lan and Haruhiko)_

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"What the fuck are we going to do?" Haruhiko asks, his face pale and his fists clenched uselessly at his side. "What the _fuck_ are we going to do?" The heroes have fallen, the world is creaking towards its end, and Haruhiko has a hangover he can't remember earning. Lan is as white as he is, except for his hands which are stained red with (thankfully) someone else's blood.

Kagetora is gone. Matsuri is gone. Allen is _dead_, and the old lady is locked up somewhere safe. Sure, there are some adults left, but they're even more useless and lost than Haruhiko and Lan are. It's just them and the kids, and Haruhiko can barely keep his own shitty life straight, let alone figure out how to get them all out of this mess.

And Kagetora is gone. Sacrificed, and for what? In what world is even a thousand Haruhikos worth a single Kagetora? How the hell is he going to pay this forward, when he doesn't even think he's facing in the right direction, doesn't even know if there is a right direction from here when everything is spiralling downwards-

He hasn't got a fucking clue.


End file.
